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+--- Thread: Tanzania Ignore civic polls at own peril: Tamwa (/Thread-Tanzania-Ignore-civic-polls-at-own-peril-Tamwa)
Tanzania Ignore civic polls at own peril: Tamwa - peroxide - 10-08-2009 02:30 AM
Many of the problems that communities face would be greatly reduced if the people chose the right leaders at the grassroots level.
The Tanzania Media Women's Association (Tamwa) executive director, Ms Ananilea Nkya told a meeting of the Editors Forum of Tanzania Limited last Monday that civic polls, which produced the nucleus leadership, were tragically ignored by many people.
"You will be surprised that there are village chairpersons who do not know how to read and write. Yet, these grassroots leaders are mandated by law to enter into agreements on behalf of their areas," she said.
It was no wonder that such leaders signed the community land away without reflecting on the implications of their actions, she noted. Nationwide civic polls are slated for October 25.
By ignoring the polls, people pawned their very livelihoods to a handful of people motivated by individual interests, to elects leaders who would nonetheless make decisions on their behalf, she explained.
Voter registration for the polls started on October 3 and ends on October 10 but interest so far has been extremely lukewarm.
"Most people dismiss these grassroots elections but the actions of the leaders so obtained touch on every ordinary person's life," she said.
If there was no water in a village or garbage was left uncollected for days, it is not the MP who should be held responsible but the village or street chairman, she said.
But she also blamed the Government for the low level of interest. "We only got the go ahead to conduct sensitisation campaigns only a few days ago. That gives only a week to do the job, she lamented.
The gender activist also took issue with the low number of female candidates. Of the 11,000 seats up for grabs, women were less than 200 or hardly two percent of all the candidates.
"Women make up more than 60 per cent of the population in Tanzania. They are the ones who feel the pinch when grassroots services are missing. They are the ones also who carry the daily burden of taking care of the children," she said and added:
"Therefore, if anything they should constitute the bulk of the grassroots leaders. They are the ones who know what it means when there is no water, or mother and child health services in their areas."
But she also pitched for ability saying, "We need to choose the best, regardless of (their) party affiliation."
Most journalists present while agreeing that participation in the elections was crucial said the information regarding electing the right leaders came too late as nominations for candidates had already been done.